Instead of sleeping in and doing whatever their little hearts desire, kids here go to hagwons over winter break. This means I get to make more money, yeee! Since our hagwon is on the small side, we held an open house everyday this past week for the parents looking for places for their kids. The thing most parents were concerned with was that all of the teachers looked too young to be experienced in teaching. It's certainly insulting from the teacher's standpoint but you can't really blame them, no matter how idiotic their way of thinking is. Korean students are known to have the highest proficiency test scores in the world but what's that good for? It just shows they can study. The biggest problem with teaching these kids is that they don't know how to think for themselves or think critically. They expect you to just hand them an assignment so they can do the work and then ask for more. When I told the parents that I teach in a more American, relax and laid back style, they looked concerned lol. How do you expect kids to develop intellectually by force feeding them material? Some parents responded well and thought it was a good idea but for the most part, they wanted a strict, force feeding teaching method. I just told them what they wanted to hear but in Mr. Kim's class, you're going to have some fun ^_^ I'm teaching debate, something I don't know that much about, but it shouldn't be too hard. Plus, the teachers that I have co-teaching and helping are really cool so it should be fun for the kids.
I met all the teachers that work at the hagwon for the first time this week and I loved all of them. About half of them have stayed or studied overseas so communicating in English is no problem, I just mix Korean and English. Everyone has been really fun to talk to and we all mesh really well. Finally, I have some people to hang out with lol. It's a cool feeling to be part of a developing business too, you feel like you're contributing a lot to the growth of the institution. The director has been taking care of us so well, buying us meals on days where we work for a while and just being like a father figure. It makes for a comfortable working environment. We're like a little hagwon family :)
It's Christmas time here but I don't have any plans :( I miss all my Craigs back at home but Skype helps ease the sting of loneliness haha. I'm sure it'll be a lot better next year. Thus far, I can picture myself living here in Seoul if I had a good job and what not but I don't think I could survive without my friends. If only we had a teleportation machine invented already, that would really be daebak (awesome). Things have been going well so far, two more months of freedom until I leave for basic training. I heard it was damn cold in February from one of the teachers (he did government service like I did after training). Guess I gotta suck it up, huh? I'm a little sad too that I have to do my service right after I met all these wonderful people. I'll still teach there, just at night or on weekends but still, it's a damn shame, damn shame, Mr. Kim. Not much more to say. Hope everyone's healthy and staying safe. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years, we'll be together soon :) Love and miss y'all.
~JK
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